NYAFF 2011: An Interview With Lee Joon-ik, Director of BATTLEFIELD HEROES
[And we've reached the finish line with Diva Velez's final interview from NYAFF with The King and the Clown and Battlefield Heroes director Lee Joon-ik. This is being cross published at The Diva Review.]
The Lady Miz Diva: Welcome to the New York Asian Film Festival.
The Lady Miz Diva: Welcome to the New York Asian Film Festival.
Lee Joon-ik: Thank you. It's my first time in New York. I've been invited many times, but this is actually my first time coming here. I was busy shooting movies.
LMD: Are
you surprised to find that Western audiences are familiar with your
works considering they haven't had wide distribution here?
LJ-i: It is very surprising especially because most of my movies deal with stories that are very specifically Korean. So,
I kind of wonder if they will be able to get everything in the movies,
but I'm very surprised by such a passionate audience.
LMD: I think the question everyone wonders is about your retirement. Is it true? Are you really retired?
LJ-i: It is true, but I am kind of a rash person. I live without thinking and suddenly I might go back on my word and do films again. {In English} Life is sudden!
LMD: What caused you to say that?
LJ-i: I felt like my life started to lag; kind of lacking tension. I started to become too lax. And I lived my life not looking back, just looking forward and always running forward. So this is the first time I feel like I have breathing room, like I have a break.
LMD: So your decision took off a lot of pressure?
LJ-i: Since I've distanced myself from movies, it's been really great. I've had the opportunity to travel a lot. But in my head, there are about there are about five projects that are circulating.
LMD: But how can a director not direct?
LJ-i: I think I will do it!
LMD: How did Battlefield Heroes, the film that is premiering at the festival come to you? I understand it's a bit of a sequel?
LJ-i: This is a sequel to Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield. This
movie was inspired by the political situation in Korea in 1995, when
there were a lot of regional conflicts among different prefectures in
Korea.
LMD: What
struck me about Battlefield Heroes is that it seems quite current. I
know that in the US military, you have people who join because they are
poor, or because they feel it's the only way towards advancement.
LJ-i: Yes,
you're right; the movie feels very relevant to now because Korea is a
country that is affected a lot by the superpowers that are around it,
like China, Japan and the United States. In this movie, I
wanted to show that 1,300 years ago, when China was Tang dynasty, that
these superpowers had exerted an enormous amount of power over Korea,
thus causing a lot of internal conflicts within Korea. Both Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield and Battlefield Heroes reflect this.
LMD: One
of my favourite lines in the film is when Thingy, the main protagonist
says to his fellow soldiers, "It doesn't matter who we fight for," that
life was going to be the same for him and his friends. I wondered if that wasn't a statement about the futility of fighting?
LJ-i: I
think war in general is a battleground for the powerful to fight for
their own causes, and the foot soldiers, the only thing they have is the
instinct for survival. And all the time in wars,
individuals are sacrificed for the profits of the powerful, so I wanted
to raise their voice on this movie.
LMD: In
Battlefield Heroes, you have those serious messages with the hilarious
scenes with the Trojan rice bowl, the bee attack and the communal
toilet. How do you balance the film's humour with the serious point you're trying to make?
LJ-i: In Korea, their sense of humour and wit is sometimes derived from the very downtrodden, from misery. And
in that way, there is a very Korean sensibility that derives a humour
from these very miserable situations and characters, and in that sense
it has some parallels to Monty's Python and the Holy Grail, or The Life
of Brian.
LMD: Which was more challenging in Battlefield Heroes, directing the wartime action or the drama?
LJ-i: The
drama is more difficult, because action scenes are just physically
difficult. Something that is physically difficult can be fine; can be
enjoyable, whereas to create drama, it's kind of difficult in the mind,
so that's more challenging.
LMD: I wonder if there was a reason that the one person that seems to believe in the war for the protection of their home is a woman?
LJ-i: Korea from the way it looks, it seems like a very male-centric, male-dominated society. But once you go inside, behind the doors, mothers figure very heavily in this culture. To
protect the motherland, it may be the men who go out to the wars and
struggle and fight, but it's always been the women - the mothers and
wives - that open their arms to them, that protect them when they
return. So, the figure of a woman and the mother is very important.
LMD: One
of my favourite films of yours is The King and the Clown, and I
wondered if you were more comfortable conveying your thoughts and
messages through historical period films?
LJ-i: I
do like working in this historical movie format, because if you look at
the perspectives on Asian histories in the west, there's relatively
much more known about Chinese or Japanese history, people are more
knowledgeable about it. Whereas Korea is still pretty unknown, not many people know about it, it's kind of an obscure history. And
so I think I have a desire to kind of inform and spread the word about
the history and traditions of Korea, because contemporary movies are
fine for me, too, but there are many filmmakers that are working at
making movies about contemporary Korea. So I choose to work in this format.
LMD:
The King and the Clown also has a theme about people just trying to
make their way in life, being held back or held down by authority
figures in kind of a similar way as Battlefield Heroes. Is the historical period easier to show support for the plight of the downtrodden?
LJ-i: Even in Radio Star and The Happy Life it's about a smaller, ordinary person trying to make it in the world. So
I'm making the same case in all of my movies, whether they're
contemporary or historical, and I always like to defy the authority and
put more value on the individual.
LMD: Back
to your retirement quickly, when we first heard about your statement,
we understood that it was a reaction to the box office numbers for
Battlefield Heroes. Do you really care that much about the box office?
LJ-i: Before
I was a director, I was also a producer and I have also imported
foreign films and distributed, so I know all the stages of commercial
filmmaking. I understand how important the capital for a commercial film is. So, for me, failure at the box office can even mean failure for me as a commercial director.
LMD: Do you know that Woody Allen never had a number one film?
LJ-i: Of course, of course, but for me, it was very important. I don't know why. I didn't want to lose the money. {Laughs}
LMD: You mentioned that you had been traveling, but what else have you been doing since you took a break from directing?
LJ-i: I've been to Mongolia four times already this year to plant trees in the desert.
LMD: Really, how do you do that?
{Lee Joon-ik produces his Iphone and shows a series of photos of people gardening in a green field.}
LJ-i: {In English} Six years ago, that was desert. It was half desert. An actress, Park Shin-hye, Yi So-yeon, the first Korean female astronaut, and a well-known photographer went with me. I started going three years ago.
~ The Lady Miz Diva
July 17th, 2011
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